Pallets are said to move the world. Eighty percent of commerce ships on Pallets. The pallet industry is estimated at greater than $30 B worldwide. More than 500 million pallets are manufactured in the US each year, with 1.8 billion pallets in service in the US alone.
Pallets can be made from various materials; however, wood pallets currently comprise about 80% of the market. More than 40% of worldwide hardwood lumber currently goes toward the manufacturing of wood pallets. Other materials used for pallet manufacturing include plastic, metal, and corrugated paperboard.
Recent regulations regarding infestation and contamination are creating a surge in interest and use of non-wood pallet alternatives. A small, but fast growing segment is the use of corrugated paperboard pallets. Many desire to replace conventional wooden pallets with corrugated pallets: increasing ability to recycle, lowering pallet weight, eliminating product contamination, reducing pallet storage volume, and reducing pallet related injuries.
Many different designs of corrugated paperboard pallets have been developed to date. Despite the potential advantages of corrugated pallets, most have suffered from several different deficiencies. These deficiencies include low strength and stiffness, high use of corrugated paperboard, resulting in high material costs, along with high overhead, assembly labor and freight costs. The inherent inability to readily produce and distribute corrugated pallets in sufficiently high volume has also been of critical importance.
Accordingly, a new corrugated pallet is needed that can provide increased strength and stiffness for use in widespread shipping, minimize corrugated use for low material costs, and that can be readily produced for the high volume consumables market, while reducing logistics costs.